Sydney Cabaret

SYDNEY is seeing a renaissance in cabaret in venues such as Slide, Ginger's at the Oxford Hotel, The Standard above Kinsela's, the Bordello Theatre in Kings Cross and the Factory Theatre in Marrickville, reports arts writer Steve Dow. Names such as Lance Horne, Trevor Ashley, Christa Hughes, iOTA, Phil Scott, Jeremy Brennan, Brendan MacLean and Tom Sharah are gracing these intimate stages. Brennan, who also programs acts at Slide Lounge in Sydney, has "certainly noticed an increased appetite for musical storytelling. And this is something that cabaret does extremely well."

Trevor Ashley has donned sequins and ribbons as Liza Minnelli in Liza on an E, as Natalie Portman (Portly) in Fat Swan, Shirley Bassey in Diamonds Are for Trevor and the little orphan in trAshley. He hosts the all-star cabaret Showqueen, running Sundays through February at Ginger's at the Oxford Hotel. His guests on Sunday February 24 are Marika Aubrey and Amanda Harrison (Elphaba from Wicked). Photo taken 24/01/12. Photo: Edwina Pickles

US pianist and musical composer Lance Horne and Sydney cabaret performer Christa Hughes rehearsing in Sydney in preparation for the all-star cabaret LOVE ME at The Standard, above Kinselas in Surry Hills, to be held on Sunday February 24. Horne has composed for Alan Cumming, Amanda Palmer and Meow Meow, among others, and in March 2013 will appear on stage in New York with Liza Minnelli. Photo: Danielle Smith

With his rich, soulful voice, singer-songwriter iOTA - star of the 2011 Sydney Festival Spiegeltent hit Smoke and Mirrors - is not above popping up at little cabaret gigs around town, dueting with erstwhile host and pianist Phil Scott at Showqueen at Ginger's at the Oxford Hotel on February 17, 2013. Photo taken Sydney Opera House 17/01/12. Photo: Ben Rushton

The Scottish stage and screen actor Alan Cumming will appear in a pre-recorded video cabaret performance at LOVE ME at The Standard on February 24, to which local performer Courtney Act will duet. Photo taken Sydney Opera House 17/02/2009. Photo: Quentin Jones

Call her Candice, call her Spanky: whatever the alter ego, New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based, London-raised cabaret performer Spanky (Rhys Morgan) is playing his/her first Sydney show, a comedy cabaret called Candice McQueen: Nasty at Slide Lounge on February 28. Find out why both Elton John and Alexander McQueen requested his private shows. Photo taken in Melbourne 13/07/12. Photo: Stephen McKenzie

Folk-pop songwriter Brendan Maclean is playing his one-man show at Factory Theatre on Friday February 22. He will be debuting new material for Sydney Mardi Gras - and he's a compulsive Twitter user. Photo taken at the Spiegeltent, Melbourne 04/02/13. Photo: Justin McManus

Six women take on the world's most famous male musicians and reinvent them as surprising, bawdy cabaret, Lady Sings It Better. From left, Maeve Marsden, Libby Wood, Chandra Franken, Belinda Crawford, Jenni Little, Monique Potter. February 23 & 24 at Factory Theatre. Then they will perform at Jurassic Lounge on February 26 and the Sydney Comedy Festival in April. Photo: Viv McGregor

In the 2012 Sydney Festival, she thrilled Spiegeltent audiences with A Little Match Girl, a cabaret agitprop take on the Hans Christian Andersen fable. Next up for the crowd-surfing cabaret diva Meow Meow will be weimar va-voom when she teams with Barry Humphries, Australian Chamber Orchestra and its artistic director Richard Tognetti and violinist-singer Satu Vanska to sing a Berlin-inspired concert of Weill, Eisler, Krenek, Brandt, Grosz & Tocj on April 24. Photo taken in the Fairfax Sydney studio 21/11/12. Photo: Marco Del Grande

The Montreal choreographers and puppeteers Cabaret Decadanse are back at LOVE ME at The Standard, Sunday February 24. Be warned: the puppets are decidedly sexy. "Montreal has one foot in American productivity, and one foot in French refinement", co-founder Serge Deslauriers once noted.

Last seen playing the flute, wearing hot pants and top hat in all-star Kylie Minogue-inspired cabaret at Slide, the flaunting flautist, Jane Rutter, is about to celebrate French poetry, music and song with her show French Kiss at the same venue on April 17. She's also got a new album to launch around the same time.

Four years after winning the 2009 Sydney Cabaret Showcase, Tom Sharah has played one-man shows and became the popular runner-up in Ten's prime time series I Will Survive. Sharah returns to Slide on February 22 with It's Raining Me. Photo: Kurt Sneddon/Blueprint Studios

Shay Stafford has written about the life on and around the Champs Elysees in Memoirs of a Showgirl and will perform the story in a show of the same name at Slide on March 7 and 8. Described as an "unashamedly camp pastiche of song, dance, feathers and sequins".